Late Saturday Afternoon in Williamsburg: Northside Festival presents Thee Oh Sees in McCarren Park

(Videos courtesy The Tuddd) (Videos courtesy Scott Lynch)

Saturday Afternoon in Williamsburg: Dickies & Jelly's Saturdays! at Rock Yard with Thee Oh Sees, The Beets, X-Ray Eyeballs, Gun Outfit, Tough Knuckles

We had an unsettling experience at this afternoon's kickoff of Dickies and Jelly Present Saturdays! at Rock Yard that made us think the people behind this series of six free Shabbos shows in Williamsburg, bringing back the Pool Party slip 'n' slide that's been verboten at East River State Park, must be worried about bad publicity.

Someone talked to us.

So far our age (sixtyish) and nondescript appearance, like the ring found by Dylan and Mingus in The Fortress of Solitude, have given us the superpower of invisibility and kept any hipster from saying a single word to us at the events we go to. We like it that way.

About twenty minutes after our arrival (the Q59 bus - be warned! it's been re-routed - took us from Metropolitan and Union right to the front entrance of the Rock Yard

- is it "the" Rock Yard or just Rock Yard?), a young man came over and asked us if we had the time.

Who doesn't know the time in 2010? Look at your phone, dude! But we're old and slow and said, "3:16." Then he asked us if we lived around here ("Yeah") and where we got the DVD ("Someone gave it to us at the entrance" - we'd thought it was a CD) said, "So what do you think of this?"

Our first thought was actually of the Bible salesman in "Good Country People":

“Mrs. Hopewell,” he began, using her name in a way that sounded almost intimate, “I know you believe in Chrustian service.”

“Well, yes,” she murmured.

“I know,” he said and paused, looking very wise with his head cocked on one side, “that you’re a good woman. Friends have told me.”

Mrs. Hopewell never liked to be taken for a fool. “What are you selling?” she asked.

But instead we said that the first few people to use the Slip 'n' Slide didn't get far in it because the black mat on the gravelly ground of the Rock Yard wasn't long enough to give them an adequate running start. Some people had only gotten about a quarter of the way through it.

Then we said, "What do you think of this?"

He told us it was a great thing for the neighborhood, great music, place to hang out, cheap beer, etc. although he allowed that it was very hot today. Then he said he was actually a friend of "the people putting it on" and he told us his name and asked us ours and shook our hand.

We were so nonplussed that we found a seat in the shade. Was it that in a small crowd a gnomish old man in a Brooklyn Law School T-shirt taking cell phone pics sticks out like Sissy Hackshaw's thumbs? Did the people at Jelly keep photos of bloggers in the back room the way restaurants keep photos of Sam Sifton?

Did they think Gawker is now sending out elderly Jews undercover to gather snarky comments? Did they think we're Anonymous at Brooklyn Vegan? Did they realize this blog covers children's puppet shows, press conferences at synagogues, lectures on African-American history, Christmas shopping at rural Wal-Marts and openings of skating rinks? We'd cover the opening of an envelope! (Even one from Vito Lopez.)

And didn't they realize that we like everything like Larry King or Mikey in the old Life Cereal commercials? That we don't write about the events we go to but have been bored at, walked out on, or were treated badly at (this means you, Union Pool)? That we're old enough and uncool enough to actually wear Dickies? That we use our first-person plural persona only to recite banal fawning superlatives?

Everyone seemed to be having a (genuinely) fine time at Rock Yard, and we think the pics here prove it. The cornbread was tasty. People seemed to be enjoying the beer and other drinks. The DJ was just fine. The portable toilets were spotless (but there weren't many peers who preceded us). All the bands - Thee Oh Sees, The Beets, Xray Eyeballs, Gun Outfit, Tough Knuckles - both the ones we saw and those on after we left - were really, really excellent.

We think you're crazy if you don't get out to Rock Yard on one of the next five Saturdays. Truly. What's not to like?

Saturday Afternoon in Coney Island: Elderly Early Birds Flock to 2009 Siren Music Festival

From all over New York, elderly music lovers converged early this afternoon on Coney Island for that senior citizen delight, the annual Siren Music Festival.

Since the Siren Music Festival is sponsored by the Village Voice, that the older demographic would be well-represented is highly logical; after all, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the average Voice reader is age 77 (and many were friends, acquaintances and former spouses of the alt-newspaper's late co-founder Norman Mailier).

No wonder they made sure the supply of portable toilets was greater than usual. Those of us with BPH - benign prostate hypertrophy - appreciated it.

Everything at the Siren Festival was geared to the old, including old-fashioned refreshments.

The early bird special also brought many elderly flocking in before the 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. scheduled starts at the main stage on West 10th Street and the Stilwell Avenue stage, both near the boardwalk.

This longhaired old gent told us he hoped the Tiny Masters of Today would play "Sticking It to the Man." He said he himself had "been stickin' it to the man since the Truman administration."

Another Tiny Masters fan had a family connection to the band. "My great-grandkids go to school with Ivan and Ada," he told us.

This excited fan told us he was planning to raise cane (the one he was leaning on) when Micachu & the Shapes came onstage.

While he leaned on his cane, his Japandroids-loving pal leaned on a parking meter.

Other early birds caught good seats with their folding chairs brought from home.

This guy bought seven XXL Siren Festival T-shirts.

A few young'uns were scattered in the crowds of mostly elderly music freaks.

These two Danish pensioners were awaiting the performance of their countrymen, The Blue Van.

They didn't have long to wait.

We first met this Bear Hands fan last July when the group played Celebrate Brooklyn! at Prospect Park. We bonded then because we both love Bear Hands' "Bad Blood."

This guy is a roadie for Thee Oh Sees, so it's been a busy year for him.

An excited fan gets his pulse taken by one of the paramedics on duty. Coney Island Hospital's just a short car ride away.

Some people with fading eyesight chose to sit in the back, away from the crowd, and just listen to the bands.

Luckily none of them need hearing aids - yet.

A fan managed to get onstage during the show.

This guy was totally lost in a Japandroids song about the ephemerality of youth and love.

A slow-moving old lady arrived too late for Tiny Masters of Today. She should have started out yesterday.

This fan, filled with anticipation, predicted that Thee Oh Sees' set would knock his socks off.

This woman was as punk as hell.

Some people just couldn't wait for Frightened Rabbit to come on at 4 p.m.


Neither could we. From all that running around between the two stages, even our fallen arches had fallen arches. Plus we needed a nap and some Geritol. So as we headed for the G train back to our NORC (naturally occurring retirement community) in Williamsburg, we reflected on our afternoon at the 2009 Siren Music Festival.

We are grateful that such great bands were present to entertain New York's senior citizens. Thanks to those responsible, and to those young enough to stay up late for the rest, this old Village Voice display-advertising department messenger (1974-75) would like to say:

Have fun! It's later than you think!

And that's the way it is.